Making Dogs Happy Part 1

We all like to think our dogs are happy with us, but how can we be sure? New research suggests most of us can’t tell – so can we use science to communicate better and make them happier? Dogmanship_a_user_ guide.pdfSee our training tips here! TRAINING_TIPS.pdf.

TRANSCRIPT

Dr Jonica NewbyThe dog is man and woman's best friend, but how good a friend to your dog are you? We all like to think our dogs are really happy with us. But how can we be sure? A new study of dogs being hugged suggests most of us are not actually very good at telling. And that made us wonder - are our dogs really happy, and can we use science to make them happier? So we recruited three regular dog owners, called a team of experts and designed a daunting two-week challenge for them and for you. Our aim - over two episodes to use this challenge and the latest science to supercharge their canine communication skills and develop a happier relationship with their dogs. It's all part of a new science, dubbed dogmanship.

Prof Paul McGreevyI'm passionate about dogmanship, simply because it turns the lens on humans.

LeanneRoxy!

Dr Jonica NewbyBut will it be enough to turn untrained pets...

MattC'mon!

Dr Jonica Newby..into household super dogs...

LeanneRoxy, get the phone.

Dr Jonica Newby...in just two weeks? It's day one and our recruits are all meeting for the first time. There's young Claudia and her surfing Spoodle, Poppy.

ClaudiaShe is a surf pup and a beach babe and I have full faith in her and yeah, I'm real excited.

Dr Jonica NewbyLeanne and little Roxy, the Chihuahua.

LeannePeople actually physically come up to us and say, "Oh, they're such yappy dogs. They're annoying. They're just small little rodents." We found a totally different side to Chihuahuas. We're hoping through this experience we'll be able to show other people that as well.

Dr Jonica NewbyAnd landscaper Matt with his sidekick Angus.

MattHe goes to work with me every day. A lot of the clients enjoy having him onsite. And he's just a lovely dog.

Dr Jonica NewbyNone of them have the slightest idea yet the challenge we have in mind for them, so it's time now for our first dogmanship specialist to reveal all. Ryan Tate has not only prepared dogs for starring roles in film, he's also a marine biologist and former seal trainer. He's an expert in the science of animal learning.

Ryan TateSo do any of you ever lose your keys?

LeanneAll the time.

Ryan TateOr what about that phone?

ClaudiaYep. Yep.

Ryan TateOK. Well, how would you like if your dog could search and locate those items anywhere in your house?

MattThat'd be great.

LeanneThat'd be good.

Ryan TateBe pretty cool, right? Well, this is your task - you're going to train your dog to do this at home. And the catch is you've only got two weeks to do it. Don't freak out, though. We're gonna help you along the way. We're gonna help you develop a whole lot of new skills to communicate with your dog and develop a happier relationship. We're gonna help you become your dog's life coach.

ClaudiaSounds good. I think we can do it, can't we, Poppy?

LeanneI think SHE can do it. Can we do it? I don't know.

Dr Jonica NewbyLeanne isn't the only one with doubts. It is a big ask, even for a professional trainer.

Ryan TateWe've got untrained dogs, novice owners. I don't think many professional trainers could actually do this in two weeks.

Ryan TateWe're gonna take Angus out of sight and I want you to ask him to come and sit.

MattAngus! Angus! Come here, boy. Good boy. Oi. Angus.

ClaudiaPoppy! Come here.

LeanneCome to mummy! Roxy.

ClaudiaPoppy.

LeanneRoxy.

MattC'mon!

ClaudiaPoppy. Poppy, sit.

LeanneSit. Oh, hold on. Let her shake it out.

Dr Jonica NewbySlightly worse than we'd hoped.

LeanneRoxy, sit! Oh, good girl!

Dr Jonica NewbyBut if Ryan is currently reconsidering his two-week deadline, he hides it well. As we prepare to teach them a new science-based way of communicating with their dogs.

Ryan TateOK, so the first thing we're gonna teach your dogs is what's known as a bridging reinforcer, or a bridge. That's where we pair a specific sound with a reward. The thing is, though, not every dog likes the same reward best, so we're gonna set up what's known as a reinforcer test. Straight to the chicken. Oh, chicken. And cheese.

ClaudiaOoh.

Ryan TateOoh. She touched the tennis ball.

Dr Jonica NewbyThe test is repeated a few times, to be sure.

Ryan TateOh, good girl.

Dr Jonica NewbySo it's chicken for Angus. Cheese for Roxy. And for Poppy, it's the ball. Now we know each dog's preferred reinforcer, we're ready to pair it with a sound and make the bridge.

Ryan TateStand. Sit. Drop.

Dr Jonica NewbyRyan has chosen the word 'yes' as the bridge sound. But it could be any sound. Many trainers use a clicker or a whistle.

Ryan TateWatch his behaviour change when I do it. It's like, Harry, we're working. Yes! Whee. Good boy. And so for him, that word 'yes' is as good as a promise to say, "You're about to get your favourite reward."

ClaudiaSo we're gonna learn how to do this?

Ryan TateAbsolutely.

ClaudiaThat's awesome.

LeanneI'm ready.

Ryan TateSo get your rewards ready first.

LeanneOK.

Ryan TateAnd...I want you to be nice and still. Dogs are really tuned in to movement. And then as soon as you say that word, the reward comes.

LeanneYes!

Ryan TatePerfect, Leanne.

Dr Jonica NewbyWhat we're doing here is setting up a new pathway in the dog's brain, so that every time it hears the word 'yes' it gets a rush of pleasure.

ClaudiaYes.

Ryan TateNice one.

ClaudiaGood girl.

Dr Jonica NewbyWhy bother, though? Why not just give the food when the dog does the right thing, rather than create a bridge sound?

MattYes.

Ryan TateOh, that was a great one! See how he looked back at you? He's already starting to get it.

Dr Jonica NewbyWell, it's all about timing. The science we're drawing on here is called learning theory. It's the science that explains and underpins all learning in animals and people.

Ryan TateSo you can imagine trying to work with an animal like this, they're big, they're semi-aquatic and they're potentially dangerous. You literally can't force them to do anything. So you really need to understand what motivates that animal to want to learn and how can you communicate with them clearly.

Dr Jonica NewbyLearning theory goes back at least 100 years, perhaps its best-known pioneer being B.F. Skinner, who coined the term 'operant conditioning'. While the marine mammal world has used learning theory science for decades, it's only more recently that dog owners have considered it.

Ryan TateIf the dog's owners understand learning theory, they communicate clearly with the dog which means the dog isn't getting mixed messages. The dog is not getting confused and trying to guess 'what do you want?' It's unlocking a language. The owners are learning to read their dogs and their dogs are learning to communicate back, through their responses.

Dr Jonica NewbyAnd fundamental to that language is accurate timing on our part. The longer you delay the reinforcement, the less likely they are to form a new association and learn.

Ryan TateSo let's say we want to teach Mali here to pick up this article on the ground and bring it back to us. He can't read our minds so we have to be really precise with when we bridge the whistle.

WomanGood boy.

Dr Jonica NewbyThere. It's incredibly quick. And the whistle is much faster than she can throw food. Now imagine if you delayed that whistle signal just two seconds. A seal can do a lot in two seconds.

Ryan TateSo within that two seconds, he looked away, looked back and even vocalised and moved his whiskers. So in his mind, he's probably performed half a dozen different behaviours, he doesn't know which one he's being reinforced for.

WomanGood boy.

Dr Jonica NewbyBut with precise bridging via the whistle, looked what he learns in under a minute. That's fantastic!

Ryan TatePretty clever, hey?

Dr Jonica NewbySo how important is timing to your dog's learning? That answer became clear in this remarkable experiment conducted by Dr Clare Browne, an expert on dog behaviour, at the University of Waikato. Note the blue box and the yellow box. Both boxes have been laced with a food smell to encourage the dog to explore. Unbeknownst to the dog, the yellow box has been rigged with an infra-red beam. So when the head pokes in, a beep sounds and food is delivered instantly. You can see her thinking about it. "What made the food come out?" There we go. With such clear feedback, dogs easily learn the task is to place their heads in the yellow box. Now watch what happens when the scientists introduce just a one second delay before the food is delivered. It seems such a minimal difference. But incredibly, that additional second is enough to confuse everything. The dog can't work out what it did to trigger the reward and eventually goes to sleep. Like most of them did with the one second delay. As with the seals, even in seconds, a dog can do a lot. How does it know which of these moves is being rewarded? Is it the lick of the lips? The drop? The tail wag? The open mouth? With a bridge reinforcer, you can deliver the message instantly. Much faster than you can throw a ball. It's extremely clear, and that will supercharge your dog's learning.

ClaudiaYes.

Ryan TateThere we go. He's starting to see it.

Dr Jonica NewbyAs well as making it fun.

Ryan TateLook how much he's enjoying that. Look at that tail and that bum go. He loves it.

Dr Jonica NewbyWell, they are clearly enjoying it. At what point should we stop?

ClaudiaYes.

Dr Jonica NewbyOur tendency as humans is to think practice makes perfect. And if we just keep going, it will get even more perfect. But in fact, studies have shown that shorter duration sessions are better for canine learning.

Ryan TateOn average, I'm gonna say, for these guys, anywhere from 30 seconds to 3 minutes, two to five repetitions per day. So honestly, the dogs will tell you when you've done enough. And you need to be watching for those subtle cues.

Dr Jonica NewbyAnd vitally, every session must finish on a high.

Ryan TateIt's called peak training. And the dog leaves going, "I won. And I want to do that again. 'Cause winning feels good."

Dr Jonica NewbyAnd while the dogs finish day one on a high, so do the owners.

ClaudiaWhen they told us, I was kind of like, "Oh, wow. Can I really do that?"

LeanneWe are so excited! We can't wait to see what Roxy's capable of.

Dr Jonica NewbyWe've worked on improving your canine communication but how good are you at reading your dog? Let's find out. Do dogs like hugs?

Woman 1Oh, Humphrey loves hugs!

Woman 2I wouldn't say all do.

Woman 3I know mine do.

Dr Jonica NewbyYeah?

Woman 3Yeah. I think they do.

Dr Jonica NewbyEarlier this year, a Canadian scientist gathered over 300 internet photos of dogs being hugged and found an astonishing 82% of dogs were showing signs of stress.

Prof Emeritus Stanley CorenMost dogs were hating it. So what that says to me is that people just don't know the signs of stress in their own dogs. And look, they're putting these photos of their obviously unhappy dogs out on the internet for everybody to see. And the signs they're missing are the ears slicked down and back. The head turned to the side to avoid eye contact. The stress yawn. Or licking the air with their tongues.

Prof Paul McGreevyHugging is a great example of how we can misread what dogs actually want. Dogs haven't evolved to hug each other. So why we should imagine that they want to be seized in that way is beyond me.

Dr Jonica NewbyI have a question for you.

WomanOK.

Dr Jonica NewbyI'm going to show you some pictures. And I want you to tell me whether the dog is happy or not.

WomanOK.

Dr Jonica NewbyHappy or not?

WomanYeah, I think so. Yep.

Dr Jonica NewbyWhat makes you say happy?

WomanAh, the expression. I know it looks like he's smiling.

Dr Jonica NewbyHow about you? Can you tell if these dogs are happy? Well, in fact, the ones on the left are all stressed.

WomanOh, really?

Dr Jonica NewbyYeah.

Prof Emeritus Stanley CorenThere are several studies of people's ability to read dogs' emotion. And on the whole, people tend to do pretty poorly. That's a problem. Because you might think you're doing something which makes your dog happy. But it might actually be making him miserable. Some dogs like to be hugged. But you need to know whether yours is telling you, "No".

Dr Jonica NewbyIt's day three of our coaching program and our owners are meeting their second dogmanship specialist. Animal behaviour professor Paul McGreevy is in charge of the dogmanship research group at Sydney University. He's going to find out how good they are at reading THEIR dogs.

Prof Paul McGreevyOK, folks, what I'd like to do is show you a short video of a young dog being tickled on the chest. And what I'd like you to do is tell me how happy you think this dog is.

Dr Jonica NewbyWatch closely. What do you think?

LeanneIt reminded me of being hugged by an old aunty or something. It's like you tolerate it but... it wasn't that comfortable.

ClaudiaWanna get out of that situation.

LeanneYeah!

Prof Paul McGreevyWhat if I told you that in that short 30-second clip, the dog actually showed eight signs of stress?

MattWow.

ClaudiaI thought maybe, like, the head going down was one of them.

Prof Paul McGreevyVery good. OK, so if we take a close look, you can see the dog is moving back when the hand approaches.

ClaudiaYep.

Prof Paul McGreevyYou spotted that. And then if we move forward, we're looking for signs of stress. These includes turning away, lip-licking. There's a turn away. OK, there. Did you see that lip-lick there?

MattYes.

Prof Paul McGreevyMany of these behaviours are completely normal behaviours - lip-licking is normal. Yawning is normal. Turning away is normal. But it's the context in which these appear that tells us that the animal may be in some sort of conflict or stress.

Dr Jonica NewbyNow we're going to confront them with some of the subtle signals their own dogs were sending on the first day. Here's Poppy. There's a big scratch when there's no real reason to do it. A stress yawn. And a lick of the lips.

LeanneOh, big lick.

ClaudiaYeah. 'Cause I had to push her bum down. Yeah. You wouldn't like that.

Prof Paul McGreevyYou may notice that after this crash course in dogmanship that you see less of it.

LeanneI hope so. 'Cause it annoys me.

Dr Jonica NewbyAnd finally, Angus.

MattPut on a happy face, mate. Put on a happy face. The ears have dropped. He's yawned. And now he's scratching himself. He's not a happy kid, is he?

Dr Jonica NewbyAnd a lip-lick. All in the space of four seconds.

Prof Paul McGreevyThat was a personal best.

Prof Paul McGreevyCount all of them in.

LeanneA+.

Dr Jonica NewbyThis doesn't necessarily mean the dogs are suffering but they are telling us they're under pressure. If it's excessive, maybe backtrack your coaching to something easier.

Prof Paul McGreevyThe dogs are giving signals all the time. And it's our job to read that signalling. To understand what the dog's trying to tell us. And that's what a good life coach would do. And you'll get more and more great behaviours out of your dog if the dog's in a happy place.

ClaudiaI think it's, like, cool. Because she's talking to me. Weird, but all day she's talking to me and I didn't even realise.

Prof Paul McGreevyI think there are a lot of people who undoubtedly love their dogs, um, who are making some serious mistakes. And science is there to help all of us get the very best relationship with our dogs.

Dr Jonica NewbyAnd if there's one serious mistake many dog owners make, it's the fallacy of the guilty look.

WomanBuddy, did you chew this shoe?

Dr Jonica NewbyYou've probably seen this look - the hangdog expression. The 'oops, I know I did a bad thing'. At least, that's what many of us believe it means. YouTube is riddled with clips such as this one, put up by owners convinced their dogs feel guilty.

ManGoodness, Denver, you didn't?

Dr Jonica NewbyBut what is the so-called guilty look? In a seminal experiment by Dr Alexandra Horowitz, an expert in canine cognition, the owner is told to order their dog not to eat the treat, and leaves the room.

WomanLeave it.

Dr Jonica NewbyBut in some cases, the researcher takes the food and lies about it.

Woman 2Come back in. She ate it.

WomanWhat did you do?

Dr Jonica NewbyThe so-called guilty look proved unrelated to whether the dog had disobeyed an instruction. It only appeared more when the owner thought the dog was guilty.

Adj. Assoc. Prof. Alexandra HorowitzThey showed more guilty look when the owner scolded them. In fact, they started looking guilty before their owners even scolded them. So if we believe that the guilty look indicates the dog really has an understanding of right and wrong, I think we'd be potentially punishing dogs needlessly and unfairly.

Dr Jonica NewbyThis so-called guilty look is actually an appeasement look, warding off our anger. And it's not surprising they throw us an appeasement look even before we scold. Study after study is proving they are exceptionally good at reading us. The fact is, humans and dogs have a unique mutual understanding. We've been evolving together for tens of thousands of years. Compared with wolves, dog brains are exquisitely attuned to our human signals. Here in Budapest, scientists from the renowned Wolf Science Center and family dog research project have shown just how attuned to us dogs have become. Dogs are able to follow a human pointing hand, whereas wolves struggle with this. Then there's the fact dog expressions so often seem to reflect human expressions, even down to the additional muscles in their eyebrows which allow them to do this. The trouble is, we are naturally so good at communicating, does it blind us to all the times we are miscommunicating?

Prof Paul McGreevyWe think we're teaching the dog not to chew. But what the dog learns is that we're unpredictable, possibly threatening, and we happen to be holding a shoe. If dogmanship can stop people punishing their dogs through sheer ignorance, then I'll be a very happy vet.

Dr Jonica NewbyIt's day four of our dogmanship science course. And so far they've learned a lot about how to communicate precisely through a bridge reinforcer and how to read what dogs are saying. Now Ryan and I are keen to check their progress and take them to the next stage in their ambitious quest to turn untrained pets into household sniffer dogs in two weeks.

Ryan TateAlright, Claudia, the first thing you want to do is test how good a bridge you have made for Poppy. So wait until her attention is on something else.

ClaudiaYes!

Ryan TateOh, that is perfect! That's exactly what we want to see.

ClaudiaThat's good.

Ryan TateNow we can train.

ClaudiaSweet. Good girl.

Dr Jonica NewbyNow the bridge is established in Poppy's brain, Claudia can use it to communicate with her that she wants Poppy to find her wallet.

ClaudiaThere we go.

Ryan TateRight. Here is the magic ball. That's yours. And I want you to place the wallet somewhere. And as soon as she shows any level of interest in it, you're gonna bridge and roll that ball straight under her nose.

ClaudiaYes.

Ryan TatePerfect start! That is a winner. So what we're doing now is a part of learning theory known as shaping, where we're essentially playing a game of hot and cold with the dog. If the dog moves towards the article, it hears the bridge, which means you're getting warm. If the dog doesn't move towards it, it just gets nothing. We just simply wait it out. She's looking around. She's thinking, "What do I have to do?" Don't move. Don't look at her.

ClaudiaYes.

Ryan TateNice one!

Dr Jonica NewbyAs the session progresses, Ryan wants more from Poppy before she gets the bridge word. It's a process known in learning theory as successive approximation.

ClaudiaYes.

Ryan TateOK. So she really looked at it then. This next time, what I'd like you to aim for is maybe either her head moving down or even one paw towards it, OK? So we're upping our approximations.

ClaudiaYes. Good girl.

Ryan TateNice one. Let's give her a little rest there. So she's working out it's something to do with moving her head. I don't think she knows for sure it's the wallet.

Dr Jonica NewbyToday's coaching is broken up into three sessions of a few minutes. By the end of which, we saw this...

Ryan TateOoh, that...

ClaudiaYes!

Ryan TateOh, there we go, Poppy!

ClaudiaGood girl.

Ryan TatePraise her up. Give her a couple of rewards.

ClaudiaGood girl! Come here.

Ryan TateAnd then we're gonna give her a breather. We're gonna end that session on a high so she remembers a great success at the end of her session.

Dr Jonica NewbyPoppy is a star pupil. And so, it turns out, is little Roxy, who's now being introduced to her target -Leanne's phone.

Ryan TateCan you see how much she's enjoying that and it's a challenge for her? She absolutely loves it. And I think dogs, specifically like Chihuahuas, they thrive on that challenge. Being made to think for themselves is something we don't often give them enough credit for. Or opportunities to allow her to do. Wait for it. Whenever I say...

LeanneI feel like from this weekend, something has shifted already. Her happiness and contentment, but also something with the two of us, connected as well.

Dr Jonica NewbyRemember, this is the dog that on day one was showing her constant anxiety through whole body shaking all the time.

LeanneShe's not as needy. I like that. We were just hanging out. It was lovely.

Ryan TateYeah, cool.

LeanneYeah.

Ryan TateI've seen some really cool stuff. So things like, through the dog just having some very simple training, or some fun games with the owner, all of a sudden, things like excessive pacing or digging or barking, just start to decrease. Because the dog's no longer being exposed to this person who is irate with them all the time. The dog knows you're happier with them. It's calmer, less anxiety, you've got a happier dog.

MattG'day, Jonica. Hi, Ryan.

Dr Jonica NewbyHi. Last on our home visit list, it's Matt and Angus. Surprisingly, they're the ones that have got stuck.

MattSo this is sort of what we've had happen. Very little response to the keys.

Ryan TateYep.

Dr Jonica NewbyThis dog has become obsessed with just staring at the food. So Ryan has decided he has to try something completely different.

Ryan TateThis may or may not work. But there's lots of different ways to do it.

Dr Jonica NewbyHe's resorted to baiting the keys with food.

Ryan TateLet him have it.

MattYes. Did he miss that?

Ryan TateThat's alright. That's fine.

MattYes.

Ryan TatePerfect timing, Matt. That's much better. I'm not gonna put any food under it this time, OK? So I'm just gonna pretend to. And then when he gets those keys, I want you to bridge.

Dr Jonica NewbyFinally, the new strategy seems to work. And although Angus is still behind the others, he too ends on a high.

Ryan TateThis is gonna be a hard one. So just wait him out.

MattYes.

Ryan TateBeautiful.

MattGood, Angus.

Ryan TateTake him back. Take him back. And we'll wrap that session there, Matt. Well done.

Dr Jonica NewbyWe finish the day with Ryan briefing everyone on their homework.

Ryan TateTo five times per day, for that length of time. So no longer than about three minutes. She'll be nailing this in two weeks.

Dr Jonica NewbyWe're part-way through our dogmanship course and while Roxy and Poppy have wowed Ryan today, they're still a long way from becoming lost wallet sniffer dogs. As for Angus...

Ryan TateThe one I'm worried about is the Labrador. It's like his food drive is so high, he actually can't think in the presence of food. Straight to the chicken.

Dr Jonica NewbySo far, we've worked on dog communication and listening skills. In part two of this science of dogmanship special, we'll learn how our own personalities impact our dogs.

Elyssa PaynePeople scoring higher in neuroticism tend to use excessive hand movements when they train and excessive verbal commands.

YOUR COMMENTS

Thanks for the very interesting programs on dogs, a subject I can not have too much of!

But I think the last link under the "Related Info" heading is incorrect: it links to the Peaediatric Epilepsy Network, http://www.pennsw.com.au/clinician-resources/about.html.

Moderator: thanks very much for alerting us to this error. The link has now been corrected.Thanks for watching.

Anne - 09 Sep 2016 11:05:55am

I have searched for good books and attending puppy training and had mixed results. Most books seem to be written a long time ago or by trainers who do not understand the recent science. The training is a risk as sometimes too big a class, too inexperienced or not trained well. I would love a DVD done by an animal behaviorist who would tell me the current stuff to watch for, amend or train my dog on. I wish we had a series like these two shows which would go from picking a dog to adulthood. So many dogs are given away or dumped due to owner ignorance. Council Libraries etc could hire them out or hold sessions as often the biggest complaint is dog barking due to boredom. I live in hope that the biggest pet owning country in the world will get its act together. The best council I have come across for community education was Gold Coast and the Animal Welfare League partnership.

Lg - 14 Sep 2016 11:27:46am

Again, please buy a dvd called Temple Grandin. Please buy her books. I have the dvd, currently borrowed by our farmer friend in NSW. Temple Grandin is at the forefront of animal behaviour and autism. I have books here at home.

Lg - 14 Sep 2016 11:29:49am

I actually expected more from Catalyst, but was left disappointed. Catalyst seem to lack a defining point in their shows. I can understand the controversy that people seem to experience.

Carlowe - 08 Sep 2016 4:24:19pm

My dogs lick their lips and turn their heads away, while leaning on me to make me pat them, or sticking their head under my arm to do the same. So I am confused to hear its a sign of stress.

Lg - 09 Sep 2016 3:39:23pm

As far as we have experienced, it's a sign of wanting attention. If they do it, stroke them on their back as though your caressing. I don't believe it's a sign of stress unless of course they sense static in the air of a thunderstorm. I must say, Catalyst unfortunately lacks the defining point, such as experimenting diets and ailments but they don't mention the blood type diet.

Sonya - 09 Sep 2016 5:18:47pm

Sometimes dogs can give conflicting signals. It may be because they are unsure themselves. They want contact but are unsure how it will turn out. It's good to look at the whole dog, the context of the interaction and make sure the dog has the ability to end the interaction when they have had enough. Here's a blog with a video that mentions this ambivalence. It has links to more of Eileen Anderson's video on body language as well.

Moderator: Hi, thanks for watching. We've removed the link because ABC's editorial guidelines doesn't permit us to add links that could be seen as advertising a service or product.

Lg - 07 Sep 2016 4:04:55pm

I have Aspergers, high functioning autism and OCD. I agree with many "expert" comments and disagree with some. My family own a German Shorthaired Pointer, and I have managed to 'bridge' a relationship with the dog and my family, due to my 'strange' behaviour because I am a high functioning autistic who predominantly sees the world in pictures. Please refer to Temple Grandin and her books to do with animals and autistics like her and how she connects them. Temple Grandin has the same as me. She was on Landline a few years ago relating to cattle and improvement to the issue of slaughter at stockyards. Autism has given me many abilities, and this is one of them. In the end, my dog always sleeps with me and follows me around.